A part of mine. Review on Rajdoot Standard

While reminiscing of golden days of childhood, what do you recall most? Things which have been really near to your heart?

Roaming around free like wind in the fresh and green landscape of your village!!Masti with all same age gang of boys, collecting ripe mangoes from the orchard and more interestingly plucking few of them when no one is looking.

Attending all poojas in village in hope of getting lots of meetha meetha Prasad.Wrestling matches and winning the championship of 7-8 year old aged boys.Myself playing on wooden stocks making them my bike, My father buying a Rajdoot standard after watching me driving my wooden bike!!!!! back in year 1985.

This one piece of memory is still alive in form of my 24year old Rajdoot standard, which is still in use. Yes the legendary Rajdoot is still being ridden by My father.Today I intend to write a review about something which has been apart of my lifeMy childhoods realized dream, my ultimate moment of joy then.My partner for adolescence as my first bike. Still my very dear friend, whom I like to hug whenever I get a chance to go back to sweet home.

Dream Bike:

Those days’ options were limited and for a person living in village it was dream bike to own. Robust, durable and dependable with good mileage (Father used to get 45-50 kmpl continuously in those days).

Ultimate friend for village roads:

Nothing can beat its handling and tackling of crude village roads.The excellent ergonomics provided by the seat, foot peg and handlebar relationship makes you feel at ease all times on any road conditions.

Great Leg guards:

First time when I tried to learn the bike, I fell down after100 meters. But kudos to the robust and very functional leg guards, I could manage with few scratches on my elbow.

Maintenance:

This is one of most maintenance free bike, I have ever seen.Piece of iron, Gives you very less chance of changing any thing very soon. In 24 years of its run, engine has to be revived just twice with last done just 3 years back. Shocks have to be changed more than couple of times. Head lights have to be modified for better visibility of late. Spare parts are very cheap.Technology being still less complicated for this bike, local mechanics do great work.

Gearing and start:

Now comes something where this bike teaches you few lessons.Gearing of one down and two up taught me enough lessons to handle any kind of gear box on current bikes. Finding neutral is an art as they say. I mastered this art thanks to my Rajdoot’s frequent gear trouble and difficulty in finding neutral.

Starting the rajdoot is something which if you master properly, would again never face problem in any other bike’s start.

The current condition:

As I told, my father still drives this 24 year old beast to his office daily, commuting nearly 30 kms daily. This bike still provides classic comfort and reliability of past.You interested to know the mileage. Don’t get astonished, it is still 40 kmpl. That is due to great care of bike by my father and his style of driving the bike. The healthy exhaust note of the bike tells everything.

Few quick statistics:

Engine capacity: 175 CC

Max speed for me:75 kmph

Max distance covered by me in one stretch: 150 kms.

As I am trying to finish this review, suddenly a nostalgic feeling grabs my heart. It says me to write something more and more and more, so that it could ever be in touch with those day.The innocent dream of a bike, and then the dream coming true. The bursts of laughter out of sheer happiness and joy of owning “The Rajdoot”